Customers of print jobs can require finishing steps for their jobs. These steps include, for example, folding printed or blank sheets, cutting sheets, trimming sheets to size and shape, cutting specialty shapes into the edges or interior of a sheet, forming multiple sheets into bound signatures or booklets, binding individual pages or signatures into books, and fastening covers to books by e.g. stapling, saddle-stitching, or gluing. Signature production requires folding a large printed sheet and cutting the folded stack so that the resulting cut pages are in sequential order.
When producing a booklet or signature, after binding, the edges of the bound printed sheets are cut so that the edges of the individual sheets all line up (have a flush edge), as commonly seen in books, magazines, and pamphlets. When producing business cards, the cards are printed on a large sheet of stiff card stock. After printing, individual cards are produced by cutting the sheets of cards into individual business cards.
Conventional finishing equipment is typically not suited for use in consumer occupied environments such as stores or business establishments, and typically requires trained personnel to safely and effectively use it. Cutters typically include large guillotines that use heavy impacts to cut through thick stacks of paper. For example, the INTIMUS PL265 programmable cutter by MARTIN YALE of Wabash, Ind. cuts up to a 2⅞″ stack of paper and weighs 823 lbs. There is a need, therefore, for smaller, lighter finishing equipment to incorporate into devices used by consumers at home or in retail environments. Furthermore, unlike offset presses which run a large number of copies of a single print job, digital printers can produce small numbers of copies of a job, requiring more frequent changes to the finishing sequence. In some cases, each printed page must be finished individually. Conventional folders, such as the RAPIDFOLD P7400 Desktop AutoFolder by MARTIN YALE, cannot finish each page individually without manual intervention. Moreover, the PL265 cutter can only store 10 cutting programs, so cannot produce more than 10 cut patterns without manual intervention. There is a need, therefore, for flexible and programmable finishing equipment that can finish each page individually without manual intervention.
As discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,095,526 to Housel, many dry electrophotographic print engines do not print full bleed, i.e. do not print to the edge of a sheet. This is because toner is not strongly attached to the sheet before fusing and can be disturbed by handling, reducing image quality.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,225 to Allen et al. describes finishing operations performed on a sheet-by-sheet basis using precision paper positioning and a transverse tool carrier. However, this scheme can waste paper due to trimming.
The CRICUT cutter by PROVO CRAFT can cut shapes into individual sheets of paper. However, the machine requires manual loading and unloading. Furthermore, the CRICUT moves the sheet to be cut back and forth during cutting, making it unsuitable for high-volume applications that need continuous-speed sheet transport.
Commonly-assigned U.S. Application Publication No. 2008/0159786 A1 describes printing raised information with a distinct tactile feel using electrophotographic techniques. Toner stack heights of at least 20 μm are provided.
There is a continuing need, therefore, for a way of cutting sheets in small, customizable finishers to produce booklets with flush edges.